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Football Players Can Write. Who Knew?

Denver Broncos Kicker Jason Elam…has written a spy thriller novel. It was released last week and is titled: “Monday Night Jihad.” See, like Monday Night Football only…Jihad. I’m kind of hoping that when you open it, a stirring theme composed by John Williams starts playing. Maybe the audio book will be read by Tony Kornheiser.

Apparently, the book “combines football, religion and a spy adventure in which the hero tries to thwart a terrorist plot.” The hero is Riley Covington (that sounds like a soap opera name to me. Somebody’s middle name and street they grew up on, perhaps?) “a bruising linebacker and Air Force lieutenant loosely based on former Broncos reserve Steve Russ … Covington is an Air Force Academy graduate who plays for the fictional Colorado Mustangs, a team in the Pro Football League. Following a tour of duty in Afghanistan, Covington, a third-round pick of the Mustangs, is living out his dream of playing professional football when he gets dragged back into his former life as a member of a special operations squad … time is running out, and it soon becomes apparent that the terrorists are on the verge of achieving their goal – to strike at the very heart of America.”

In the interest of full disclosure, Elam did not write this alone. He collaborated with Denver pastor Steve Yohn. Yohn says this isn’t a gimmick; Elam was involved every step of the way. Elam is also currently pursuing a Master’s degree in religion through a distance-learning program at Liberty University’s seminary in Lynchburg, Va. Huh. This story just keeps getting better and better. Also, Jeff Reed shows his junk, Jason Elam writes a novel and gets a Master’s degree. Those NFL kickers really run the gamut.

He was also quoted as saying, “I couldn’t make the hero a kicker. It had to be plausible.” Well, who will have egg on his face when Nate Kaeding goes all John McClane in a San Diego sky scraper?

And when asked which was better, the last second kick or the book release, Elam said the kick. But added, “At least you know you’re not going to have chicken wings and snowballs thrown at you if they don’t like your book.” We’ll see about that, Mr. Elam.

If anybody hasn’t gotten a Christmas present for Andrea yet…now you have one.

Give him a break, I bet he got all jacked up on Sauerbrun’s Ephedra and all he could find was a laptop and a porn star name generator website, under these circumstances – the best conclusion we could hope for from a PK is a cheezy novel-ty =) Side note, if it does become a movie it should ONLY be shown on the NFL network.